Achievements

Brand Tasmania has adopted the definition of brand authored by former CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner: “A brand is a living entity – and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures”.

Tasmanians and Tasmanian businesses regularly win national and international awards and accolades for their endeavours, products and services. This document lists a selection of achievements by Tasmanians that are examples of those ‘…thousand small gestures’.

Please note that this list is not an exhaustive list and is added to regularly. It was last updated in October 2018.

Wine

2018 Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships Lifetime Achievement Award: Ed Carr from House of Arras

2018 Royal Melbourne Wine Awards> Best Young White Wine: Tolpuddle Vineyard> Best Chardonnay: Tolpuddle Vineyard > Best Single Vineyard: Tolpuddle Vineyard > James Halliday Trophy for Best Pinot Noir: The Bay of Fires winery> Best Sparkling: House of Arras> Best Riesling: Eddystone Point

2018 International Wine Challenge – Stefano Lubiana Ruscello Pinot Noir 2016 awarded World’s Top Bio-Dynamic Wine (winner for third year in a row)

2016 – House of Arras won 4 awards at the London Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships> best Australian blend,> best Australian Blanc de Blancs,> best Australian vintage rosé, and> best value sparkling wine.

2016 – London Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships Jansz took out best Australian NV rosé

2016 – Royal Queensland Wine Show (RQWS) Awards. The Courier-Mail Grand Champion Wine of Show at the – House of Arras 2007 Grand Vintage. The quality of the House of Arras 2007 Grand Vintage has been described by Chief Judge David Bicknell as being “up there with some of the great champagne houses”.

2015 National Wine Show:> Len Evans Memorial Trophy for Champion Wine of Show (the first time it has been awarded to a sparkling wine and a first for Tasmania as well) and the Kit Stevens Memorial Trophy for Sparkling – House of Arras Blanc de Blancs 2006> Riesling Trophy – Eddystone Point Riesling 2014> Pinot Noir Trophy – Bay of Fires Pinot Noir 2014

Cider

2016 – Tasmania’s Franklin Cider Company’s won Champion Perry and Best in Show from almost 200 beer and cider entrants in the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW 10th Beer and Cider Show with its Frank’s Summer Pear Cider.

2016 – Willie Smith’s Organic Cider won the Best in Show trophy at the Australian Cider Awards for the second year in a row.

2015 – Willie Smith’s won three major trophies at the 2015 Australian Cider Awards. The limited-edition cider, made from 18 different apple varieties sourced from across the Huon Valley, was judged Best in Show, Best Cider and Best Australian Cider or Perry.

2013 – Frank’s Summer Pear Cider was declared best in class at the Australian Cider Awards in Sydney

2016 – Australian Honey Products won the National Agri Business Export Award.

2016 Blue Hills Honey’s Tasmanian Leatherwood won a Grand Gold Medal in the event’s prestigious Prize of Jury list at the Monde fine food awards in Budapest, Hungary, naming it as one of the top five food products in the world.

2016 – Woodbridge Smokehouse – won Gold for its Cold Smoked Atlantic Salmon at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show

2015 – Petuna’s salmon and ocean trout hatchery in Cressy became the first multi-species hatchery in the world to be awarded Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification from the Global Aquaculture Alliance. Petuna’s products now carry three-star BAP labelling, an international certification program based on science-based and continuously improved performance standards for the entire aquaculture supply chain.

2014 – Salmon producer Tassal Ltd achieved Aquaculture Stewardship Council accreditation for its Macquarie Harbour operations. Tassal was the first Australian producer of any species and one of the first salmon-farming companies in the world to achieve this certification.

Arts

2019 Golden Guitar Awards> Album of the Year: Country Heart by Wolfe Brothers> Contemporary Country Album of the Year: Country Heart by Wolfe Brothers> Group of the Year: Wolfe Brothers> Song of the Year: Ain’t Seen it Yet by Wolfe Brothers

Eloise Emmett’s self-published seafood cookbook, Seafood Everyday, has won third place in the best Fish and seafood book category at Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2017.

2017 – Tasmanian food book, Garlic Feast, has won Australia’s Cookbook of the Year and Best Self-Published Book in Australia at the International Gourmand Awards.

2017 – Heather Rose has won the 2017 Stella Prize for Australian female writers with her novel The Museum of Modern Love.

2017 – Nick Haddow’s book Milk.Made: A Book About Cheese. How to Choose It, Serve It and Eat It. was awarded winner of the Single Subject book category at the prestigious global 2017 James Beard Awards.

2017 TMAG won several Museum and Galleries National Awards (MAGNAs)> Overall National Winner and Temporary or Traveling Exhibition – Tempest> Temporary or Traveling Exhibition – One Hell of an Inferno: The 1967 Tasmanian Bushfires> Indigenous Project or Keeping Place – kanalaritja: An Unbroken String

2016 MONA’s Dark Mofo Creative Director, Leigh Carmichael, 41, appointed to the board of the Australia Council for the Arts.

2016 The Kettering Incident TV series filmed in Tasmania has won the Best Telemovie or Mini Series Production category at the 16th Screen Producers Australia Awards 2016.

2016 – Tasmanian-made series The Kettering Incident has won the Special Jury Prize at France’s leading TV festival.

2015 – Artist and author Simon Barnard won the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books at a Children’s Book Council of Australia.

2015 – Richard Flanagan wins the Man Booker prize.

2015 – Tony Walker’s Vintage Tasmania is Australian Wine Book of the Year for 2015.

2015 – Launceston artist Paul Snell has won the $25,000 Whyalla Art Prize with his lambda print work Intersect #201504. The South Australian competition attracted 212 entrants from across Australia, with the winning piece chosen from a total of 72 finalists.

Agriculture

2018 Tasmanian AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award given to Allison Clark

Tasmanian Young Farmer of 2018 awarded to Pipers River farmer Will Baxter

2018 Fruit Growers Tasmania – Young Grower of the Year awarded to James Clements of Wandin Valley Farms

2018 Tasmanian Dairy Business of the Year award given to Remlap Farm at Sisters Creek

2016 – Holm Oak Vineyards co-owner and winemaker Rebecca Duffy has won Australia’s pre-eminent award for regional business women from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.

2015 – The Manning family of “Miena” won the coveted Vitale Barberis Canonico (VBC) Wool Excellence Award for its 2014-15 superfine wool clip.

2015 – Trefusis Merino stud at Ross has won Tasmania’s first grand championship at the Australian Fleece Competition.

2015 – Rebecca Duffy from Holm Oak Vineyard has been judged Owner/Operator of the Year at the inaugural Australian Women in Wine Awards.

2015 – Potato researcher Kevin Clayton-Greene received an international industry award during the World Potato Congress.

2016 – Hobart’s Franklin restaurant selected in Australia’s top 10 restaurant for 2016 at the recent Australian Financial Review Top Restaurants Awards.

2016 National Australian Hotel Awards in Sydney.> Shoreline Hotel bottle shop at Howrah was named the Best Retail Liquor Outlet in Australia.> Frogmore Creek Winery was named Best Regional Restaurant in the land,> Beltana Hotel at Lindisfarne was declared the Best Regional Bistro

Marine Manufacturing

Oct 2016 Incat announced a new order from Virtu Ferries of Malta to design and build a 110-metre high-speed vehicle and passenger ferr y for service between Malta and the European Union.

Taylor Bros has won substantial Australian Defence and offshore energy contracts and also projects in New Zealand.

Advanced Manufacturing

November 2017 – Liferaft Systems Australia (LSA) secured a $3 million contract from BAE Systems to supply marine evacuation systems (MES) for three new vessels currently under construction for the UK Ministry of Defence.

Delta Hydraulics has substantial contracts across the Australian mainland, Thailand and China.

Southern Prospect has won substantial contracts for customers in Australia, Europe, Scandinavia and Asia.

Haulmax has developed next generation products for the mining industry across the world.

Specialised Vehicle Solutions export custom designed trucks into Indonesia and New Guinea.

Education

January 2017 – The University of Tasmania has been named in the world’s top 50 environmentally-friendly universities in a Universitas Indonesia’s GreenMetric ranking system. Source UTAS

March 2017 QS World University Rankings rate the University of Tasmania’s IMAS marine science among the top 50 in the world for marine science. Source UTAS

February 2017 – University of Tasmania Senior Economics Lecturer Dr Joaquin Vespignani, has been recognised as the top young economist in Australia and in the top 10 economists globally, in the latest Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) rankings. Source UTAS

The Australian Maritime College has begun delivery of its first coastal seafaring course in the United Arab Emirates.

The Australian Maritime College has secured a two-year Australian Government contract to deliver engineering and navigation training in the Torres Strait

Huonville High School is in the running to win $US 100,000 after becoming the only Australian finalist in an international competition on renewable energy and sustainability innovation. The school is one of only 14 from around the world to reach the finals of the Global High Schools Zayed Future Energy Prize, which aims to inspire future generations “to be responsible, sustainable citizens”.

UTAS has been recognised for excellence in research and is ranked in the top 2% of the World’s Universities.

Science and Research

2018 Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KSA)> Research Commercialisation Award given to UTAS for work supporting the development of the world's first commercial-scale tropical rock lobster hatchery> People's Choice Award given to UTAS for work supporting the development of the world's first commercial-scale tropical rock lobster hatchery

2018 Mental Health Service Awards of Australia and New Zealand given to the University of Tasmania’s RedUSe (Reducing Use of Sedatives) program, led by Dr Westbury and Professor Peterson

Medal of Distinction in 2018 for best research paper from England’s Royal Institution of Naval Architecture awarded to UTAS research team, led by marine engineering lecturer Dr Javad Alavimehr

2017 – An international study, led by the University of Tasmania’s Menzies Institute for Medical Research with input from the School of Medicine, involving multiple institutions over six years has shown that immunotherapy can cure Tasmanian devils of the deadly devil facial tumour disease (DFTD).

2017 – In December IMAS scientist Professor Philip Boyd has been awarded the prestigious G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award by the US-based Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO). Source UTAS

2017 – In March Associate Professor Daphne Habibis, Director of the University’s Housing and Community Research Unit (HACRU), has received the Mike Berry award excellence in housing research awarded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI). Source UTAS

UTAS researchers Barry Brook and Philip Boyd have been awarded Laureate Fellowships by the Australian Research Council that will enable them to undertake research projects worth $11 million across five years

CSIRO research scientists based in Hobart contribute to the world’s knowledge on climate change.

The Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies team that has worked on the project to breed southern rock lobsters for 17 years is now looking to partner with Australian companies to undertake commercial trials.

IT

2014 – Savage Interactive won an Apple Design Award for the hugely popular software app Procreate.

Start-up agricultural technology business, The Yield, has attracted $2.5 million in investment from the Bosch Group, Europe’s third-largest conglomerate

Tasmanian poker player Heidi May, 27, out-played a field of 718 poker-faced competitors in Las Vegas in July to win the World Series of Poker’s golden bracelet.

2017 – Teenager Alex Peroni, after obtaining his first pole position scored his maiden victory in the Formula Renault Eurocup on the streets of Pau, France.

2017 – John Zeckendorf is the first Tasmanian to reach the summit of Mt Everest. Mr Zeckendorf stood atop the peak — 8848 metres above sea level — for eight minutes. He has climbed the summits of Everest, Denali, Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus and Vinson since 2010.

2015 – Cyclist Amy Cure won a gold medal in the World Cycling Championships.

2015 – Launceston players have won the Man-of-the-Match awards in three of the five successful World Cup Cricket finals. James Faulkner (2015), Ricky Ponting (2003) and David Boon (1987).

Other

2018 Tasmanian Australian of the Year: Scott Rankin, Burnie theatre director and writer and founder of Big hART charity

2018 Telstra Tasmanian Business of the year: awarded to Scoot Boots (in Acton Park), the only Australian manufacturer of protective equine hoof boots

Australian Booksellers Association’s Bookseller of the Year Award 2017 given to Fullers Bookshop Manager, Catherine Schulz.

Senior Australian of the Year honour given to expatriate Tasmanian scientist, Graham Farquhar, AO, in the 2018 Australia Day Awards ceremony.

2017 – Tasmanian plant scientist, Graham Farquhar, AO, has become the first Australian to be awarded a Kyoto Prize.

2017 – At 17 Oliver O’Halloran has become the youngest person to fly solo and unassisted around Australia

2016 – Fairbrother Pty Ltd won the National Specialist Contractor of the Year Award at the Master Builders Australia’s National Excellence in Building and Construction Awards.

2016 – Tasmanian builder NEAThouse has won a top national GreenSmart award for a display home at Dodges Ferry.

2016 Rosevear Stephenson won “Jenny’s House” project at Battery Point won the Eleanor Cullis-Hill Award for alterations and additions in residential architecture at the Australian Institute of Architects National Awards.

2016 – Tasmania’s Australian of the Year. Rosalie Martin, A speech pathologist who has assisted prisoners to transform their lives through literacy

2016 – Michael Badcock wins the inaugural Rural Community Leader of the Year and an award for Excellence in Diversification at the national Rural Farmer of the Year awards.

2016 – MONA founder David Walsh was knighted by France for his contribution to the Arts. He was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres – an award given to eminent people of any nation who have furthered the Arts throughout the world. Mr Walsh received an OAM (Officer of the Order of Australia) earlier this year.

2016 – The Queenstown to Strahan heritage rail link is awarded an Engineering Heritage International Marker and one of only seven infrastructure projects in the nation to be celebrated as significant on a world scale.

2016 – TT Line has won the 2016 Shippax Ship Conversion Award for the highly complex refurbishment project of the two Spirit of Tasmania ferries.

2015 – The Blue Derby Mountain Bike Trails project has earned the Dorset Council a national Award for Excellence in Economic Development.

2015 – UTAS’s agricultural science school has been ranked among the top 5 per cent in the world by the QS World University rankings.

2014 – Hydro Tasmania’s renewable-energy project on King Island has won the 2013 Innovation Award from the Energy Supply Association of Australia.

2014 – Launceston took the top award for Community Action and Partnerships at the Sustainable Cities Awards 2013.

2014 – Godfreys Beach in Tasmania’s north-west received the Community Leadership and Action Award at the Australian Sustainable Cities Clean Beaches Awards 2013.

2014 – GASP Stage 2 won the Australian Institute of Architects 2014 National Award for Urban Design.

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Facts about Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is the southernmost state of Australia, located at latitude 40° south and longitude 144° east and separated from the continent by Bass Strait. It is a group of 334 islands, with the main island being 315 km (180 miles) from west to east and 286 km (175 miles) north to south.

Tasmania

Tasmanians are resourceful and innovative people, committed to a continually expanding export sector. In 2012–13, international exports from the state totalled $3.04 billion. USA, China, Taiwan, India, Japan and other Asian countries account for the bulk of exports, with goods and services also exported to Europe and many other regions.

Geography

Tasmania is similar in size to the Republic of Ireland or Sri Lanka. The Tasmanian islands have a combined coastline of more than 3,000 km.

Geography

The main island has a land area of 62,409 sq km (24,096 sq miles) and the minor islands, taken together, total only 6 per cent of the main island’s land area. The biggest islands are Flinders (1,374 sq km/539 sq miles), King, Cape Barren, Bruny and Macquarie Islands.

Geography

About 250km (150 miles) separates Tasmania’s main island from continental Australia. The Kent Group of Islands, one of the most northerly parts of the state, is only 55km (34 miles) from the coast of the Australian continent.

Climate

Twice named ‘Best Temperate Island in the World’ by international travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler, Tasmania has a mild, temperate maritime climate, with four distinct seasons.

Climate

In summer (December to February) the average maximum temperature is 21° Celsius (70° Fahrenheit). In winter (June to August) the average maximum is 12° C (52° F) and the average minimum is 4° C (40° F). Snow often falls in the highlands, but is rarely experienced in more settled areas.

Annual Rainfall

Tasmania’s west coast is one of the wettest places in the world, but the eastern part of the State lives in a rain-shadow. Hobart, the second-driest capital city in Australia, receives about half as much rain as Sydney.

Annual Rainfall

Annual rainfall in the west is 2,400 mm (95 inches), but hardy locals insist there is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing. If you travel 120 km east to Hobart, you experience a much drier average of 626 mm (24 inches) a year.

Population

The 512,875-strong community spreads itself across the land; less urbanised than the population of any other Australian state. Hobart, the capital city, is home to more than 212,000 people.

Capital City

Hobart nestles at the foot of kunanyi / Mount Wellington (1,270 m / 4,000 ft) and overlooks the Derwent Estuary, where pods of dolphins and migrating whales are sometimes seen from nearby beaches. Surrounded by thickly forested rolling hills, the city is home to the state parliament and the main campus of the University of Tasmania.

Capital City

Its historic centre features Georgian and Regency buildings from colonial times. Hobart is home port for coastal fishing boats, Antarctic expeditions and vessels that fish the Southern Ocean.

Land Formation

Mountain ranges in the south-west date back 1,000 million years. Ancient sediments were deeply buried, folded and heated under enormous pressure to form schists and glistening white quartzites.

Land Formation

In the south-west and central highlands, dolerite caps many mountains, including Precipitous Bluff and Tasmania’s highest peak, Mt Ossa (1617 m / 5300 ft). More than 42 per cent of Tasmania is World Heritage Area, national park and marine or forest reserves.

Flora

Vegetation is diverse, from alpine heathlands and tall open eucalypt forests to areas of temperate rainforests and moorlands, known as buttongrass plains. Many plants are unique to Tasmania and the ancestors of some species grew on the ancient super-continent, Gondwana, before it broke up 50 million years ago.

Flora

Unique native conifers include slow-growing Huon pines, with one specimen on Mt Read estimated to be up to 10,000 years old. Lomatia tasmanica, commonly known as King’s holly, is a self-cloning shrub that may well be the oldest living organism on earth. It was discovered in 1937.

Fauna

Tasmania is the last refuge of several mammals that once roamed the Australian continent. It is the only place to see a Tasmanian devil or eastern quoll (native cat) in the wild and is the best place to see the spotted-tailed quoll (tiger cat), all carnivorous marsupials.

Fauna

The eastern bettong and the Tasmanian pademelon, both now extinct on the Australian continent, may also be observed.

Fauna

The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, was Australia’s largest surviving carnivorous marsupial and is a modern day mystery. The last documented thylacine died in captivity in 1936 and although the animal is considered extinct, unsubstantiated sightings persist.

History and Heritage

Aboriginal people have lived in Tasmania for about 35,000 years, since well before the last Ice Age. They were isolated from the Australian continent about 12,000 years ago, when the seas rose to flood low coastal plains and form Bass Strait.

History and Heritage

Descendants of the original people are part of modern Tasmania’s predominantly Anglo-Celtic population.

History and Heritage

Tasmania was originally named Van Dieman’s Land by the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman in 1642. The island was settled by the British as a penal colony in 1803 and the original name was associated with the convict era. It was changed to Tasmania when convict transportation stopped in 1853.

Economy

A resourceful island culture has generated leading-edge niche industries, from production of high-speed catamaran ferries and marine equipment to lightning-protection technology.

Economy

The Wooden Boat Centre at Shipwrights Point has re-established the skills and traditions of another age and attracts students from around the world.

Economy

Tasmania is a world leader in natural turf systems for major sporting arenas and in areas of mining technology and environmental management. Its aquaculture industry has developed ground-breaking fish-feeding technology and new packaging.

Economy

Tasmanians sell communications equipment to many navies and their world-class fine timber designers and craftsmen take orders internationally for furniture made from distinctive local timber.

Economy

The state is a natural larder with clean air, unpolluted water and rich soils inviting the production of 100 varieties of specialty cheeses, as well as other dairy products, mouth-watering rock lobsters, oysters, scallops and abalone, Atlantic salmon, beef, premium beers, leatherwood honey, mineral waters, fine chocolates, fresh berry fruits, apples and crisp vegetables.

Economy

Tasmania is a producer of award-winning cool-climate wines, beers, ciders and whiskies. Other export products include essential oils such as lavender, pharmaceutical products and premium wool sought after in Europe and Asia. Hobart is a vital gateway to the Antarctic and a centre for Southern Ocean and polar research.

Economy

The industries in Tasmania which made the greatest contribution to the State’s gross product in 2010–11 in volume terms were: Manufacturing (9.4%), Health care and social assistance (8.2%), Financial and insurance services (7.2%), Ownership of dwellings and Agriculture, forestry and fishing (each 7.1%).

Getting to Tasmania

Travel is easy, whether by air from Sydney or Melbourne, or by sea, with daily sailings of the twin ferries Spirit of Tasmania 1 and 2 each way between Melbourne and Devonport throughout the year.